More great books coming this Christmas!

Spent two days this week at a roadshow, where publishers presented their great white hopes for Christmas. 750 titles later… but there are some amazing books due in the latter part of the year!

In Fiction: the new Andrew McGahan novel Wonders of a Godless World. I scored an advance copy and have almost finished it - let's just say it is a complete departure from his other novels, but is touched with brilliance (and a fair bit of science!)

New novels from Margaret Atwood (The Year of the Flood returning to the world of Oryx and Crake), Barbara Kingsolver (The Lacuna, based on the lives of Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Trotsky), Louis de Bernieres (Notwithstanding, set in small town Sussex), Bernard Cornwell (The Burning Land, about King Alfred), Paul Auster (Invisible - a coming of age novel drawing on Auster's own life), Orhan Pamuk (The Museum of Innocence, set in 1975 Istanbul) and Audrey Niffenegger (Her Fearful Symmetry, a modern ghost story).

Also from Joseph Kanon (Stardust, set in 1950s Hollywood),Sebastian Faulks (A Week in December, described as a powerful contemporary novel set in London), William Boyd (Ordinary Thunderstorms - a strong conspiracy novel), Alex Miller (Lovesong - set in Paris, Tunisia and Australia) and John Irving (Last Night in Twisted River - a brick of a book set in 1954 New Hampshire). AND a new Corinna Chapman novel for the fans of Kerry Greenwood (Forbidden Fruit).

In Children's books: no doubt the best of the year will be a follow up to the phenomenal Diary of a Wombat - Baby Wombat's Week by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley. It is every bit as adorable, witty and beautiful as the original title!
Robert Ingpen turns his hand to illustrating Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (remember his gorgeous efforts with Wind in the Willows, Treasure Island, and Peter Pan?) The ninth Ranger's Apprentice novel (Halt's Peril) will be eagerly awaited. There is a great quirky little board book called It's Great to Have a Duck which had everyone laughing out loud; and a delightfully skewriff book which reminds me strongly of Struwwelpeter or even Saki (Cautionary Tales for Boys and Girls)

Non-fiction also promises some great treats! What about a new Peter Ackroyd - Venice - or a new Don Watson - Bendable Learnings: The Wisdom of Modern Management - or a new William Dalrymple - Nine Lives - or even a new Paul Barry (but we can't tell you anything about this one other than it's a BIG name getting the Alan Bond/Kerry Packer treatment…)

I'm looking forward to a collection of newspaper columns from the Great Curmudgeon Himself, Alan Ramsey; a history on the Kokoda Track told from the Japanese perspective called The Path of Infinite Sorrow by Craig Collie and Hajime Marutani (apparently this is the name the Japanese call Kokoda); a digger's diaries from Fromelles and the Somme - Over the Top by H G Hartnett, and a long overdue book on The Australian Light Horse by Roland Perry who did that interesting book on Monash a few years ago. There's a stunning photography book, Bird, from Andrew Zuckerman, who brought us Wisdom last year; a great big colourful book on The Mind and Times of Reg Mombassa; one on botanical art in Australia from the 1830s called Women of Flowers; Creative Lives, another wonderful National Library publication drawing on the personal papers of Australian writers and artists. And one of those fascinating biographies on 20th century writers that have been so readable of late, this time on Evelyn Waugh, called Mad World.

So there you have it - just some of the exciting titles you can look forward to! Start planning your summer reading now!! Lindy

Greg reports from the Leading Edge Books Christmas Roadshow

Having just gotten back from the Leading Edge Christmas Roadshow, where publishers and distributors present the pick of their Christmas season titles to independent booksellers, I can confidently say that there are lots of titles to be excited about this Christmas.

For all those Twilight fans out there there’s a book coming called Twilight and Philosophy (no it’s not meant to be a oxymoron), new novels by John Bainville and Nick Hornby. Peter Temple’s sequel to the Broken Shore called Truth; a new Peter Carey called Parrot and Oliver in America (lets hope its better than the last one) and Dave Eggers' adult version of Where The Wild Things Are simply titled The Wild Things.

Thomas Pynchon has written a detective noir novel Inherent Vice, James Ellory is back and so is Inspector Wexford. As for non-fiction there’s the French equivalent of Silver Spoon called I Know How To Cook; the diaries of Sofia Tolstoy and a new Don Watson looking at the language of modern management, plus there is a beautiful book by Carl Jung never before published called The Red Book. Edmund Campon has put pen to paper to record his thoughts and reflections; David Thompson’s Thai Food has always been a bestseller this time he goes in search of Thailand’s street markets and stalls in a book called Thai Street Food, plus there's a new Clive James - I could go on, but you’ll just have to wait for our Catalogue in November. Greg

Edna: The Inside Story

It's not every day an incarnation of one of Australia's Truly Great Megastars calls in! (OR, what a rep has to do to sell his company's books…)
Anyway possums, it may tickle your glands to know that there will be a scurrilous, revealing and totally inappropriately intimate biography of our Very Own Edna, by that nasty little man Barry Humphries. Oh the juicy bits of information that may find their way on to the printed page! If Edna can't whip her lawyers into shape to do their job properly (well, it always worked for Norm) you just never know what will come to light…

You have to wait for it: it's due October! Lindy

Another Miles Franklin Award for Tim Winton!

Congratulations to Tim Winton for winning the 2009 Miles Franklin Award with Breath. This is Tim's fourth Miles Franklin Award. His previous winning novels were Dirt Music (2002), Cloudstreet (1992) and Shallows (1984).

The other short-listed novels this year were Ice by Louis Nowra, The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas, Wanting by Richard Flanagan and The Pages by Murray Bail.

Breath has also won the Indie Award for 2008 and the audio version has picked up an Earphones award.

Wolfson History Prize-winners Announced

The winners of the 2008 Wolfson History prize are Mary Beard for Pompeii: Life of a Roman Town and Margaret McGowan for Dance in the Renaissance: European Fashion, French Obsession.

Previous winners include Antony Beevor, Roy Porter and William Dalrymple. A full list can be downloaded from here.

Debut novel wins the IMPAC Award

Man Gone Down by American writer Michael Thomas has won the 2009 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

The IMPAC award is unique in that it receives its nominations from public libraries around the world. Man Gone Down was nominated by The National Library Service of Barbados, Bridgetown, which described it as “A vibrant, well written first novel, an exploration of identity, inter-racial relationships and societal values through the eye of a black male.”

One of the judges, Irish academic and writer James Ryan said “We never know his name. But the African-American protagonist of Michael Thomas’ masterful debut, Man Gone Down, will stay with readers for a long time. He lingers because this extraordinary novel comes to us from a writer of enthralling voice and startling insight. Tuned urgently to the way we live now, the winner of the International Dublin IMPAC Prize 2009 is a novel brilliant in its scope and energy, and deeply moving in its human warmth.”

Other shortlisted books were The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, The Burnt-Out Town of Miracles by Roy Jacobsen, Ravel by Jean Echenoz, Animal's People by Indra Sinha, The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamed, The Archivist's Story by Travis Holland and The Indian Clerk by David Leavitt.

Byron Bay Writers Festival

The 2009 Byron Bay Writers Festival is on 7-9 August. You can get all the details here.